Personal communication service (PCS) is provided in a variety of environments. One of these environments is the academic or business environment in which there are certain areas where it is not desirable to have audio alerting (ringing) given for incoming calls. Rather, the preferred method is to use a physical transducer that will cause the PCS wireless handset to vibrate which is detectable by the user. The areas in which audio or vibration alerting is desired vary depending on the time of the day. In certain areas, the users themselves may decide to use audio or vibration alerting; however, in other areas the PCS system administrator may wish to designate certain areas in which audio alerting will not be utilized. One such area would be an auditorium during certain hours. In addition, the users of PCS wireless handsets are constantly moving within the environment, and it is an inconvenience to constantly have to adjust between audio and vibration alerting.